The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s librarians really know the score

In this 2023 feature published in the Chicago Sun-Times, the CSO’s library staff, then consisting of Principal Librarian Peter Conover and librarians Carole Keller and Mark Swanson, comes into focus. In honor of National Library Week, it deserves another look. To read the complete article, click here.

Shortly before each Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert is set to begin, someone discreetly walks onstage to place a score on the conductor’s music stand, then returns to retrieve it when that first piece is over — a process repeated for each selection on the program.

Those brief, easy-to-ignore trips across the stage are the only times that audiences get a glimpse at the three staff members who work in one of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s most important if little-known behind-the-scenes departments — its library.